The newly formed Telangana government is creating a technology development bank that will offer seed funding to startups in the hardware and software sectors, the State information technology minister K.T. Rama Rao told reporters on the sidelines of the recently concluded Indian Gadget Expo (via LiveMint).

The government is also setting up an incubation centre in Hyderabad at GachiBowli. Rama Rao said this centre will be spread over 100,000 sq. ft and will be functional in the next six to eight months. This incubation facility will reportedly accommodate 120 startups and is expected to come up in the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) – Hyderabad campus.

The report says that Indian School of Business which operates a separate business incubator called DLabs, will help this facility with business and market strategy.

Besides this, Rao also mentions that they have approved plans to set up two electronic manufacturing clusters near the Hyderabad International airport, which comes under the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR), being jointly developed by the Indian government and the Telangana government. These clusters are probably part of the central government’s National Electronics Policy.

Similar Initiatives

– Last month, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation had setup a Rs 10 crore angel fund to invest in startups this fiscal, as per The Hindu. It was also looking to partner with Kerala Financial Corporation (KFC) to help launch private venture funds which would be managed by professionals.

– Last December, Kerala government had stated plans of setting aside Rs 500 crore annually to improve startup ecosystem in the state and to offer angel funding to entrepreneurs. Startup Village had also received Rs 150 crore investment from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Kerala government in September last year.

– Early last year, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had proposed the creation of a Rs 15 crore angel fund to encourage new and innovative projects in the state. It also proposed a plan to setup incubation centers for Information & Communication Technology (ICT) sector in collaboration with engineering colleges in select district headquarters to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in this sector. In April this year, NASSCOM had stated plans of setting up a ‘Startup warehouse’ along with Karnataka government that will incubate 25-30 early-stage technology firms.

– Former finance minister P.Chidambaram had announced in his budget speech last year, that the funds provided to Technology Business Incubators (TBI) based within academic institutions and approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology or the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, will qualify as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) expenditure.

– Earlier this month, the newly elected BJP government had created a new ministry for skill development & entrepreneurship and had appointed Sarbananda Sonowal as the minister of state for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship along with youth affairs and sports ministry.